THE EARLY YEARS, REVISITED! – Interview with Ben Osmundson – ZEBRAHEAD

RYL: Your new album is titled “The Early Years, Revisited!”, among the songs included in it new songs and your best success after almost 20 years of career……. What it means for you?

ZEBRA HEAD: This is an exciting album for us because it spans songs throughout our entire career. We have been touring with Matty and Dan for several years now, and it’s great to have them actually play and sing their parts on “The Early Years, Revisited!”.

I think the fans will be stoked to hear how the re-recorded songs turned out.

RYL: Let’s talk about the song “Falling Apart”, what it means for you?

ZEBRA HEAD: The song, in general, is about being stuck in a poisonous relationship.

I never like to say exactly what the lyrics mean to me because, often times that sways the listeners experience as to what the lyrics mean to them.

Everyone relates and connects to lyrics in a unique and personal way. That’s one of the best things about music.

RYL: Is there a common meaning/theme between all your songs?

ZEBRA HEAD: Not really. We write our lyrics based on experiences we are going through or have gone through in the past.

Some of these experiences are fun and some are more challenging. It just depends on what we are going through when we are in the process of writing.

RYL: Do you remember the day you wrote “Playmate of the year”?

ZEBRAHEAD: To be honest with you, I wasn’t very involved in writing the lyrics to that song. Our old singer wrote most of the lyrics to that one. I wrote my part, but to this day I feel lyrically that song is one of the hokiest songs we have written.

RYL: how do you, usually, write the lyrics and music of your songs?

ZEBRAHEAD: Usually we have a guitar riff or bass line that we think is cool. After that, we come up with melodies and rhythms and create a song with all those pieces.

The lyrics almost always come last and often change up to the day we go to mix the album.

RYL: Which is your favorite punk rock song (lyrically speaking)?

ZEBRAHEAD: “Waiting Room” by Fugazi is my favorite punk song.

RYL: Which is the most important thing for you while doing music? And the best achievement of your career?

ZEBRAHEAD: The most important thing for me as a musician is to write and play music in a way that connects with people.

I think that’s part of the reason our live shows have so much energy. It’s not only the band that creates that.

The crowd has just as much to do with having a great show as the band. The best achievement for me is the fact that we have had the opportunity to do this for as long as we have. And, that we are still going.